Ohio State dietitians assess how fad diets stack the odds against social media users

Short-form content-sharing apps like TikTok and Instagram have made fad diets more widespread, according to Ohio State dietitians. Credit: Neveah Repp | Design Editor

For Liz Weinandy, an Ohio State instructor of practice in medical dietetics, experimenting with fad diets is like getting hooked on slot machines in Las Vegas: enticing and flashy at first, but ultimately draining and destructive. 

“All of these diets create euphoria to begin with, but they’re just going to cause disappointment in the end,” said Weinandy, also a registered dietician with the Wexner Medical Center. 

In essence, Weinandy said a “fad diet” refers to any trendy eating plan that follows a strict set of rules and promises immediate health results — especially without strong scientific backing. Due to the immense popularity of short-form content-sharing apps like TikTok and Instagram, information surrounding these “quick-fix” regimens can quickly “cascade out of control,” she said.

“Over time, it feels like there’s always a different fad diet coming out that has different rules, but a lot of them tend to be recycled,” Weinandy said. “With social media, they just take flight; it’s like a bird with air under its wings, and it just really tends to take off very quickly.”

Joseph Goldman, a second-year graduate student in dietetics and nutrition, said fad diets often promote “one-size-fits-all” solutions that are overly simplistic and fail to account for more personalized health issues.

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, advertising for fad diets was largely limited to books and magazines, Goldman said. Once social media gained cultural traction, however, fad diets’ ability to eclipse professional advice rose dramatically. 

“In the time that you could have watched a documentary, you could have watched 100 different people talk about 100 different opinions on fad diets,” Goldman said. “When enough of those people join into one voice, I think that can impact people a lot more strongly than we often think that it does.”

When it comes to nutritional fads dominating the 2020s — including the carnivore diet, intermittent fasting and more — Weinandy and Goldman said dietitians remain committed to meeting patients where they are and helping them pursue evidence-based eating habits. 

“Everybody has reasons for what they do,” Weinandy said. “We just want people to make the best decisions for their health.”

The carnivore craze

According to the TikTok Creative Center, the #carnivorediet hashtag has nearly 160,000 dedicated videos, meaning millions — if not billions — of users have likely seen them while scrolling. 

Weinandy said the carnivore diet is highly restrictive, with participants only consuming animal products like fish, poultry, other meats, eggs and some dairy. No plant foods, such as fruits and vegetables, play a part in the routine.

Though Weinandy acknowledged the diet can contribute to rapid weight loss, she said it also undermines total health and wellness, as following such a stringent framework is virtually impossible over time. 

“You know, people can’t go forever and not eat pizza, or bread or even fruit,” Weinandy said. “Again, when you look at any of these diets, the commonality is that they usually will exclude an entire food group, or maybe even a macro-nutrient group like protein or carbs.”

Dietitians often feel frustrated or confused by the carnivore diet’s online prominence, Goldman said. Some choose to respond to certain videos, using the “stitch” feature to comment on clips from other creators. 

“They’ll do a stitch of, like, a person bragging about how it’s been five or six days since they’ve had a bowel movement,” Goldman said. “And me and all dietitians are like, ‘What are you — that’s not good! What are you talking about? How is that one of your goals?’” 

Goldman said dietitians and nutritionists have an obligation to believe patients when they share positive experiences with fad diets. Still, working with people to pinpoint why and how they’ve seen personal improvement — while emphasizing the long-term value of a balanced eating plan — can be challenging in an increasingly overburdened healthcare system. 

“How do you have these longer conversations, these drawn-out conversations, with patients who are navigating fad diets as more information is available, less clinicians are available and less time is available?” Goldman said. “That kind of battle is going to play out over the next few decades, I would guess.”

Notably, Weinandy said college students and average Americans may struggle to afford the carnivore diet because it prioritizes high-quality meats over more cost-effective, plant-based alternatives.  

“If you’re eating a lot of meat on the carnivore diet, that could get really expensive,” Weinandy said.  

Feast, fast, repeat

Also known as time-restricted feeding, intermittent fasting occurs “when people restrict the time during the day when they can eat,” according to NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. 

For Goldman, this practice is considered less overtly dangerous than the carnivore diet. He said, theoretically, intermittent fasting could be healthy if a person consumes an adequate amount of nutrients, vitamins and minerals within their chosen eating window. 

“I’ve heard from people who say, ‘Yeah, I’ve felt good as I’m doing this; I feel a little bit more attentive and awake,’” Goldman said. “I’ve also heard people on the other side say, ‘I felt horrible. I was hungry all day, couldn’t focus and then I didn’t sleep very well.’”

At the same time, Goldman said the benefits and drawbacks of time-restricted feeding can be highly nuanced depending on the person in question — a fact social media creators and influencers might overlook when promoting it on their platforms. For instance, he said individuals with diabetes should definitely avoid it, citing concerns about their blood glucose levels becoming unstable. 

College students who are interested in intermittent fasting should consider how it could affect their academic performance and capacity to socialize, Weinandy said. 

“For students, I would say to really use caution with intermittent fasting because if they’re going until noon or later without eating, but they have morning classes, then they’re just running on fumes,” Weinandy said. 

Based on her expertise, Weinandy said there isn’t much difference between time-restricted feeding and self-imposed calorie quotas. In her view, the rigid restraint required to consistently partake in intermittent fasting raises a potential red flag. 

“If someone doesn’t succeed, then they might feel really bad about themselves, and that’s another check box with fad diets,” Weinandy said. “They often create body dissatisfaction, and they can lower self-esteem if a person can’t follow it, which they usually can’t.”

The new frontier 

Looking to the future, Weinandy said the rise of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic or Wegovy is one dietary trend she will keep a sharp eye on. 

These drugs, which primarily function by suppressing patients’ appetites, are just one of many tools for weight loss; even so, Weinandy said people should be fully aware of the attached risks to prevent themselves from falling into the same mindset as with fad diets. 

“I’ve seen a lot of people that have gone on those, and great, they’ve lost all this weight — but they’ve also lost a lot of muscle mass,” Weinandy said. “And when you lose muscle mass, you’re also driving yourself more towards malnutrition. A lot of people think of malnutrition as people that just don’t have enough calories, but reducing that muscle mass has a lot of negative benefits to the metabolic health overall, and not only your metabolism, but your heart and other organs in your body.”

One topic of continued interest for Goldman is what constitutes “ultra-processed foods,” he said. Though he has noticed numerous online creators advising their followers to completely cut out UPFs, Goldman noted the dietetics community is still struggling to precisely define what they are. 

“I listened to a podcast about folks who were studying ultra-processed foods,” Goldman said. “It was two leading researchers, and the host posited the question, ‘Are Fritos ultra-processed food?’ And one of them said, ‘No, it’s like four ingredients,’ and the other said, ‘Yes, it’s made in a giant plant.’ So, leading researchers of this field don’t even know what the definition is. That’s part of the problem.”

Goldman said the social determinants of health, mainly one’s socioeconomic status and access to fresh foods, only serve to enrich and complicate these ongoing discussions. 

“I think in most dietitians’ opinion[s], some nutrition is better than no nutrition, right?” Goldman said. “We don’t want to tell people not to eat if this is the thing that is most accessible to them.”

Overall, staying informed about fad diets and their potentially negative effects — such as an increased risk of eating disorders and nutrient deficiencies — is particularly important for the college-age demographic, Weinandy said. Even though not all influencers spread misinformation, she said seeking out a registered dietitian’s professional advice is always a safe option. 

“Because we’re dietitians, and we’re really rooted in science and evidence, it’s not as flashy of a message,” Weinandy said. “And also, it’s probably kind of boring, like, ‘Oh yeah, eat your fruits and vegetables, and think about lifestyle changes.’ But it’s really what works.”

As an emergent dietitian preparing to enter the field post-graduation, Goldman agreed. In addition, he said he hopes to see more colleagues use social media as an educational tool for all ages. 

“I think having those voices out there who can combat some of the more harmful and toxic fad diet and nutrition recommendations is really important,” Goldman said. “I think there are not enough of them.”